Explanation

After a few days of recovery and another handful of mini-adventures, here is the abridged version of the story behind the pictures.

The first picture is from a store in North Market, a hall in historic Boston. This is right next to Quincy Market, an entire building filled with every kind of cuisine one could imagine. The three of us (Erin, Chris, and myself) ate lunch and then ventured over into this touristy gift shop characterized by giant lobsters on the outside. Once inside, we snapped a shot with Barack Obama and will always try to pass it off as real.

After the shop, we strolled around a bit and walked out the long wharf to check out the sailboats and water taxis; this proved for some delightful pictures. Long ago, Chris and I pledged to try and stay away from the Freedom Trail, a path of sorts that runs through many of the historic sights of the North End of Boston. Once again, we found ourselves on it, but on this occasion it proved enjoyable and leisurely with a good friend.

Just off of the trail on Union Street is a series of large glass columns that act as a memorial, hollowed out so that a walkway runs through them. The six columns represent the six million Jews that were killed during the Holocaust; on each column are the numbers 0000000 through 6000000 in semi-random order, again representing the six million. There were some piercing quotes by Holocaust survivors that proved to be thought-provoking for us, etched in the walkway stone and on nearby granite monuments.

Then, we strolled through the Old Granary cemetery where the remains of your favorite patriot/brewer and mine, Sam Adams, are laid. A few blocks from there is Boston Common, half the size but twice the cleanliness and beauty of Central Park in NYC. And that was just Friday.

On Saturday, we had an intense kayaking trip (which is poorly illustrated by the last four pictures) that deserves a blog entry all to itself.
Until tomorrow...